Valley Oaks owners vow to rebuild

FALLBROOK - The managing partner of Valley Oaks, the mobile-home
park devastated by last month's Rice fire, said Wednesday that she
plans to rebuild the park in an undertaking she is calling "The
Phoenix Project."

When the wildfire ripped through the mobile-home park on Oct.
22, it destroyed 106 modular homes, exactly half of the 212 houses
in the park. The fire also damaged century-old oak trees and laid
waste to much of the community's infrastructure. Park officials
said they're still trying to assess all the damage.

Valley Oaks residents own their manufactured homes but rent the
spaces from the park for an average of $650 a month.

"We're still tallying who wants to come back," said Grace
Gabrielli, who co-owns the park with two cousins and two brothers.
"There are a lot of people who haven't decided. There's some that
are definitely coming back, and there are some who say, 'No, I'm
not coming back.' This is such a devastating loss for
everyone."

She said that restoring gas service to more than 100 homes still
standing in the southern parts of the park is her first
priority.

"Number one is utilities," she said. "Then we need to see how
the roads are going to be. So far, they seem to be fine."

Before residents can replace their homes on the spaces that were
burned, water, gas and electrical lines must be tested and
restored. And in some spaces, the foundations may have sustained
enough heat damage to warrant replacing them, she said.

Gabrielli lives in Colorado and flew in last week to inspect the
damage. She said she and the park's other owners and managers are
doing their best to provide for the burned-out residents, more than
half of whom are older than 55.

While it was difficult to see the once-beautiful park that has
been in her family for two generations so devastated, she said it
has been even more tragic to witness the losses suffered by the
residents.

"I don't know how to comfort someone with that kind of a loss,
but I'm doing my best," she said. "That's the hardest.

"We had residents who've been there 20, 25 years, and some of
those seniors have decided they're not coming back."

She said some displaced residents have told her they'll either
move in with family or move to Silvergate or other assisted-living
facilities.

Eighteen of the homes destroyed on Oct. 22 were uninsured, and a
fund for those homeowners has been established at Wells Fargo,
Gabrielli said.

Georgiana Webber, who bought her house in Valley Oaks six months
ago before losing it to last month's wildfire, said she wants to
return to the park when it's rebuilt.

She said the most difficult thing since the fire was "being
accurate with the insurance paperwork - you have to list every
single thing that you own, and the current market value."

"That's been a daunting task," she said.

Meanwhile, park owners and employees have already moved forward
with restoration plans.

"We're getting bids on the debris removal, and I'm hoping that
by the end of next week, we can say we've made major progress in
removing the debris," she said. "I've heard of other communities
where it took six to eight months. That's not acceptable here."